It is frequently desirable to provide wireless communication technologies in various applications for convenience, mobility, and efficiency. Several different wireless technologies have emerged that provide short and long range wireless communications among devices and/or networks. For example, Bluetooth® wireless technology has been developed for providing short range wireless communication among various devices such as PCs, laptop computers, personal digital assistants, and mobile phones. The range of communication includes a personal area network (PAN). Bluetooth technology utilizes a frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) scheme for transmitting radio signals. That is, a carrier is rapidly switched among many frequency channels in a specific sequence or hopping pattern. The communicating devices are synchronized to a common clock and the frequency hopping pattern. This provides robustness in the system for avoiding interference with other devices and/or networks utilizing similar frequency channels.
As another example, Wi-Fi® wireless technology has been developed for providing long range wireless Internet connectivity to Wi-Fi enabled devices within a hotspot that is covered by one or more access points. The range of communication includes a local area network (LAN). Wi-Fi technology utilizes a constant communication channel that is shared by all the devices within the hotspot. For security, Wi-Fi technology implements various encryption techniques for protecting data transmitted between Wi-Fi radios and access points.
Although these wireless technologies have been generally adequate for their intended purpose, they have not been satisfactory in all respects. As one example, these wireless technologies provide a relatively small bandwidth for transmitting data over a radio channel. As such, the potential data transmission speed which is proportional to the bandwidth of the channel and the logarithm of the signal-to-noise ratio is limited by the relatively small bandwidth. With the emergence of Gigabyte Ethernet technology for wired Internet connectivity, the limited bandwidth of these traditional wireless technologies prevents them from taking full advantage of the very high data transmission speeds (e.g., up to 1 Gbps) that are available.
Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology has been developed for wireless communication that uses a wideband of the RF spectrum for transmitting data. As such, UWB technology has a limited interference range with other wireless technologies and includes more available channels for communication. Additionally, each UWB channel may have a bandwidth greater than 500 MHz. In this way, UWB technology is able to transmit more data in a given period of time. However, UWB is not currently suited for use with technologies and/or applications that require high bandwidth such as Gigabyte Ethernet technology. Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and method for providing Ethernet connectivity over an ultra-wideband (UWB) link to maximize data transmission speed in a wireless local area network.